Re: document.write causes validation to fail from Simon Wilkinson on 1999-10-14 (www-validator@w3.org from October 1999)

From: Simon Wilkinson <sxw@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 19:28:45 +0100 (BST)
To: "Bjoern Hoehrmann" <derhoermi@gmx.net>, "Liam Quinn" <liam@htmlhelp.com>
Cc: <www-validator@w3.org>
Message-Id: <199910141828.TAA02205@canna.dcs.ed.ac.uk>

>   * If it isn't already done, link HTML Tidy (or integrate it into the
>     validator)

An aside here, which I hope will be of interest.

I use on offline validator, based on the W3 one. We run this validator
on HTTP PUTs before commiting them to a CVS repository. If the validator
fails the PUT, because the HTML is invalid (probably is if it comes from
some dodgy HTML editor) we then strip off any DTD information the editor
has provided, and run it through HTML tidy.

99% of the time this produces a valid HTML page, which passes the validator,
and looks similar to what the author intended!

So, I'd say that providing tidy (or even recommending it) as a means of
sorting out validation errors is a very good idea.

Cheers,

Simon.

Received on Thursday, 14 October 1999 14:28:48 UTC